Movie review: Global warming doc ‘Aquarela’ will leave you cold

Tuesday

Aug 27, 2019 at 11:39 AM

Director Victor Kossakovsky makes the case for halting climate change by chronicling the direness of melting glaciers and the resulting fearsome, destructive power of water.

For a movie about global warming, “Aquarela” leaves you awfully cold. Not just because of the mountains of glaciers captured deconstructing, but because director Victor Kossakovsky’s approach is so chillingly distant and aloof. Yes, he’s the artist and entitled to make all the choices, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them.

The footage, shot in such diverse locations as Miami, Greenland and the semi-frozen tundra of his native Russia, is assuredly gorgeous - and unsettling in its urgency in chronicling a crisis that could lead to the end of us all. That’s the takeaway. Well, that, and the sobering reminder of the unmitigated power of water to be our friend - and our worst enemy. Yet, we continue to mess with it at our own peril.

OK, I’m woke. Now what? Strangely, “Aquarela” (Portuguese for watercolor) doesn’t bother to hazard an incentive for anyone to do anything. It’s just a presentation of the situation, most of which we already know, particularly the melting glaciers and the increasingly cataclysmic extreme weather conditions spawning natural disasters across the world. That includes Hurricane Irma, dramatically captured here as it tears asunder in minutes what took man decades to build.

Mostly, it’s just prettier pictures of what we depressingly see almost nightly on the news. Kossakovsky has zero interest in refining it into something more useful. There’s precious little in the way of spoken word or humans for that matter. We see an unidentified Russian woman steering a masted ship through ice flows and turbulent seas. Who is she and why does Kossakovsky find her so interesting? The only other people are stupid motorists attempting to drive across Russia’s frozen Lake Baikal and the poor souls whose job it is to rescue them and their vehicles when they predictably plunge through thin ice.

It’s somewhat fascinating watching the long, drawn-out technique of fishing a car out of a frozen lake. The use of pulleys, ropes and old-fashioned muscle look positively medieval; but darned if they don’t work. There’s also a tinge of drama when one unlucky motorist frets that his companion is trapped under the ice. Just don’t expect Kossakovsky to show any rescue attempts or let on if the person survived or not. Like every other question you want answered, you’re expecting too much.

The footage of a melting glacier in Greenland chunking apart to form dangerous icebergs (Titanic, anyone?) is engrossing, a kaleidoscope of blues, whites and grays shot at a surreal 96 frames per second. But like everything else, it drags on for an eternity.

Except for a couple of metal songs accompanying the footage in key spots, “Aquarela” consists largely of ambient sounds. Again, it’s dull, if not sleep-inducing. But, boy, are those pictures pretty! Some might (excuse the expression) be snowed by Kossakovsky’s sparkling aesthetics, most I suspect will be like me, sitting frozen - not in the scene - but in a cinema-induced coma. Wake me when it’s over.

Al Alexander may be reached at alexandercritica@aol.com.

“Aquarela”

A documentary by Victor Kossakovsky.

(PG for some thematic elements)

Grade: C

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